In September, Ares Rights directed three DMCA takedown notices to my web host, demanding removal of an entire post because it contained “private and not public data” — that is, an “address, email and telephone” — and “a document with copyright.” The complaint also implied that the post infringed on a trademark. The post in question, however, had redacted any contact information and the ‘copyright’ in question arose from a composite image created by a newspaper which contained the logo of Ares Rights.

Yesterday, Ares Rights 1 tried its luck again, complaining to Twitter that I had tweeted an image linking Ares Rights to (what appears to be) a DMCA notice to Facebook targeting a critic of Ecuador’s government — a notice purportedly sent on behalf of Ecuador’s state-owned television station ECTV. The complaint cited a violation of Twitter’s “rules regarding posting information or images that the individual claims as private.” Twitter suspended my account until I promised to comply with the rules, then deleted the tweet in question. That tweet and the complaint I received from Twitter are below.

The ‘private’ information consisted of an email address belonging to Ares Rights: a professional address associated with a firm purporting to act on behalf of the government of Ecuador. That email address is easily found on the Chilling Effects database of DMCA notices.

Twitter is, of course, free to establish their own rules and enforce them as they please. Their sandbox, their rules. 2 But Ares Rights’ invocation of ‘privacy’ is a fig leaf. The firm is engaging in a pattern and practice of cynically invoking laws or policies, whether in copyright or privacy, to attempt to harass and intimidate critics of Ares Rights or Ecuador. I’m not the only critic of Ares Rights to be targeted in this manner. Twitter has repeatedly yielded to these demands, so Ares Rights will continue to abuse them.

The Tweet:

The Complaint:

Hello,

We have received a complaint from an individual that your account is in violation of the Twitter Rules (https://twitter.com/rules), specifically our rules regarding posting information or images that the individual claims as private. In response to this complaint your account has been temporarily suspended.

If you would like to request your account to be restored, please respond to this email and confirm that you’ve read and understood the Twitter Rules (https://twitter.com/rules).

We will then remove the reported Tweet and unsuspend the account. Please note that future Twitter Rules violations may result in permanent account suspension. We appreciate your cooperation going forward.

Thanks,

Twitter

Notes:

Ares Rights presumably sent the notice. Twitter does not disclose the identity of the sender. But what are the odds that someone else would be interested in a three-month-old tweet about Ares Rights? And what are the odds that someone else is dedicated enough to do this to multiple critics of Ares Rights? Given Ares’ record of invoking dubious policies to harass critics, I would be surprised if this were not Ares Rights. ↩